EuroWire May 2019

Transatlantic cable

to determining who causes air pollution, and who breathes that pollution, this research is just the beginning.”

excess exposure, while whites, on the other hand, experience a “pollution advantage,” meaning they are exposed to 17 per cent less pollution than is caused by their consumption. “What surprised me the most was the magnitude of the discrepancy,” said Jason Hill, a biosytems engineering professor at the University of Minnesota, and co-author of the study: “It’s surprisingly large.” The study, which used census data, explained that black people and Hispanic people bear a higher proportion of the pollution because of where most of them live, compared with where most white people live, and the problem occurs across the country. The study was launched during Barack Obama’s presidency, funded by money from federal agencies, and has continued to be funded by the administration of President Donald Trump. Both racial minorities and whites have benefited from clean air regulations, the study found, with fine particulate pollution falling about 50 per cent on average between 2003 and 2015, but the pollution inequity “remains stubborn”. Public health advocates and environmentalists warn that the Trump administration’s move to ease regulations on power plants, industry and vehicles, while pursuing increased drilling and mining, will make air pollution worse. Julian Marshall, an engineering professor at the University of Washington and co-author of the study, said: “When it comes

Telecom

US telcos added 2.4 million broadband customers in 2018

Reporting the results of the latest Leichtman Research Group study, Telecompaper revealed in March that the biggest cable and telephone providers in the USA, representing about 95 per cent of the market, added 2.4 million net additional broadband Internet subscribers during 2018. The top broadband providers accounted for a total of 98.2 million subscribers last year, with top cable companies having 64.3 million broadband subscribers, and top telephone companies 33.9 million subscribers. For the studies, cable companies included Comcast, Charter, Cox, Altice, Mediacom, WOW and Cable One, while phone companies included AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Frontier, Windstream, Consolidated and Cincinnati Bell. In general, broadband additions went 115 per cent higher, year-on-year. The cable companies added about 2.9 million subscribers in the year, from 2.725 million the year before, with Comcast and Charter each adding over one million.

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May 2019